The Best And Worst European Ryder Cup Captains

When Luke Donald named his six captain’s pick for this week’s European Ryder Cup team there would have been plenty of armchair critics who felt they could have done better - myself included.

But while making his picks, Donald had far more to take into account than form alone. While it is important that Donald heads to New York with 12 players at the peak of their powers, there is far more to take into account. 

In the weeks and months leading up to the event, he will have looked at every statistic. He will know who is the best putter on his team, who drives the ball best under pressure, who is most likely to put a wedge stone dead when the heat is on.

And more important than any of that, he will know who gets on with whom, which players are likely to bring the best out of one another. You can be absolutely certain that when he named his 12 players he would already have formed a good idea of his foursomes and fourball pairings. As the week unfolds, he knows that he may have to tweak things slightly.

Here we look at six of the very best European captains and two who really could have done better...

Tony Jacklin

Jacklin changed everything for Europe in the Ryder Cup. When approached and asked to be captain he insisted that he would only do so if things were done professionally. And that meant first-class travel for players, caddies and family members alike. Even team uniforms took on a whole new look under Jacklin’s leadership. The Ryder Cup meant a huge amount to the Englishman after he led GB&I to a memorable tied match against the USA at Royal Birkdale in 1969. He captained Europe in 1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989. Although Europe lost on American soil in 1983 the team gave America a hell of a fright and it set up a memorable victory at The Belfry in 1985 when Sam Torrance holed the winning putt. The celebrations were wild - but nothing like we saw two years later when, finally, the team beat the USA at Muirfield Village.

Bernhard Langer

The German played on 10 Ryder Cup teams so it was only natural that at some point in his storied career he would be asked to perform the role of captain and he duly did so in 2004. As a player, Langer was meticulous in everything he did, leaving absolutely nothing to chance. And he was exactly the same as captain. The match was played at Oakland Hills. Langer had the good fortune of being pitted against a US team captained by Hal Sutton. The American team contained Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, the world’s two best players and Sutton decided to pair them together, even though they did not get on. They lost their opening day foursomes and fourball matches. Langer led Europe to a sensational 18.5-9.5 victory. There was a clamour for him to carry on but he refused.

Paul McGinley

McGinley holed the winning putt when Europe beat the Americans at The Belfry in 2002 and promptly jumped into the lake beside the 18th green in celebration. An emotional player who often wore his heart on his sleeve, his captaincy at Gleneagles in 2014 could not have been more different. He was obsessed with statistics and sweated blood over his fourball and foursomes pairings, identifying the players who were most likely to gel together. And it paid off in spades. Two years earlier, Europe had produced a comeback for the ages at Medinah but at Gleneagles the outcome was never in doubt as McGinley’s team cruised to a 16.5-11.5 victory.

Seve Ballesteros

Ballesteros led Europe at Valderrama. Nobody ever cared more about the Ryder Cup than the Spaniard and his captaincy was pretty eccentric, to say the least. Miguel Angel Jimenez, one of his vice-captains, would later report that Seve would call him in the middle of the night to discuss pairings. The problem was that Ballesteros probably felt in his heart of hearts that he should still be playing. Over the course of three days he kept popping up in the middle of the fairway to advise his players on what shot they should be playing. He received pretty short shrift from Colin Montgomerie, then Europe’s best golfer. Europe scraped home 14.5-13.5. Many believed that they won despite their captain rather than because of him. But his players all knew how much the Ryder Cup meant to him and were desperate to give him the victory he so craved.

Jose Maria Olazabal

Ah, the Miracle at Medinah in 2012. At one point on Saturday afternoon, Europe trailed by 10 points to four. To all intents and purposes, the contest was over. But then Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia beat Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker and Ian Poulter, in partnership with Rory McIlroy, produced a finish for the ages to produce an unlikely one up success against Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson. Europe trailed 10-6 going into the final day singles. Jose Maria Olzabal, the European captain, gathered his players and invoked the spirit of Seve Ballesteros, who had recently passed away. It inspired his team and the next day they produced the most unlikely of victories, winning eight of the singles and halving the final one to win 14.5-13.5. It all reduced a highly emotional Olazabal to tears.

Luke Donald

As a player, Donald was always somebody who went about his business quietly and with a minimum of fuss. But you do not become a world number one unless you have a killer instinct. It is hard to believe now, but there were some who feared for Donald when he was named to lead Europe at the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone. They need not have worried. He proved that he was not afraid to make difficult decisions when he opted to pick Ludvig Aberg, a golfer who had never even played in a major at the time. They was no doubting Aberg’s talent but he was completely inexperienced. With everything else he has done, it turned out to be the right choice and Donald’s team duly thumped the USA and was persuaded to keep the job. Everything Donald has done to date has been hugely impressive. The players love him, he deals with his media commitments superbly. And it says a great deal about him that none of those who missed out on one of his teams had a bad word to say about him.

And here are two who weren't so successful...

Mark James

The captain who stole defeat from the jaws of victory at Brookline in 1999. While the match is remembered for the appalling scenes when Justin Leonard holed a huge putt on the 17th green against Joe Maria Olazabal, that is only a very small part of the story. Europe established a 10-6 lead after the opening two days and were widely expected to cruise to another win in America. For reasons known only to himself, European captain Mark James had failed to play Jarmo Sandelin, Jean Van de Velde and Andrew Coltart in any match over those opening two days. It was all the more puzzling given that Coltart was one of his picks. James had made little secret of the fact that he was not a huge fan of Van de Velde or Sandelin. It should have surprised nobody that all three, who were Ryder Cup rookies, were roundly thrashed in the singles as the Americans fought back to win 14.5-13.5.

Nick Faldo

As a six-time major winner and record Ryder Cup points scorer, Faldo looked like a natural Ryder Cup captain. It did not quite turn out that way when he led Europe to Valhalla in 2008. He was an unmitigated disaster as his team suffered a heavy defeat. His relationship with the media was spiky, to say the very least, his jokes fell flat and some of his tactical decisions were questionable at best. He was outthought and outclassed at just about every turn by his American counterpart Paul Azinger. He was unpopular with his players and fell out with Sergio Garcia, then a cornerstone of the European team.

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